With their latest summer collection on the shelves, “M Prêt-à-Porter”, the four hundred and fifty square metre shop is bright with colour. This member of Max Mara Fashion group likes to think its concept is unique. What strikes the customer is that the shop has its own identity and experience in the textile sector. It doesn’t have traditional sales techniques. On the contrary, the manager, Rajoo Sanasy, insists on its “professional approach, which relies on long-term and good service.”

This is possible thanks to the “open-minded and honest” Italian designer and production manager , Raya Meziou. As she is the one who advises customers, she is well placed to choose the clothes for the Mauritian boutique. She thus goes shopping in Italy quite often to choose the right style of garments.

Since its opening in 1999, M Prêt-à-Porter has attracted and retained a number of women customers thanks to its marketing methods such as loyalty cards that give discounts on all products, no matter what age or size the customer is…

The Max Mara group in Italy comprises some 40 different brands, each one specialising in one type of clothes. In Mauritius, the shop contains some 20 brands – an absolute record and a “great chance” to group all these categories in the same shop.

Each brand targets a specific type of customer. For instance, Max Mara itself is a top brand; evening dresses – including wedding dresses – cost from Rs 6,000 to Rs 35,000. Marina Rinaldi specialises in unusual sizes, outside the 38-46 range. This brand is very polular on the Japanese market as Japanese women tend to be small. Marina Rinaldi manufactures special clothes for them.

Although Max Mara is conscious of having a “high-class” reputation and wants to keep it so, the management explains: “ A high standard doesn’t inevitably mean high prices.” The different brands are also a way of ensuring different prices in the shop. However, the specificity (each model is unique) and the materials used imply cost.

Moreover, Rajoo Sanasy highlights the practical aspect of their clothes. “Of course, our products are fashion and design conscious but one of our main preoccupations is that women should feel comfortable in their clothes. But this doesn’t prevent us from having an original touch in all our products.”

The clothes all come from the parent company in Italy but it happens that the manufacturing is done elsewhere in the world. Mauritius itself has had a factory manufacturing shirts for more than twenty years. “At the time we established the factory in Mauritius, we already had the idea of opening a shop here but we felt that Mauritius was not ready yet for such a concept. So we waited for 16 years… But it was worth it.”

The factory is still open behind the shop in the industrial zone of Phoenix but its production is exclusively for export. Moreover, most of the raw materials, the design and the finishing are done in Italy before being exported to other countries. “Everything has to go though the parent company at some stage of the production.”

Moreover, the local staff may soon be given a free hand in the management of their shop by the Max Mara group and should start producing items other than just shirts for export in the Mauritian factory. In the shop itself, they intend to concentrate more on accessories. With the arrival of the new collection, they have already given over one hall to accessories (bags, belts, shoes, scarves…) and this should expand even more in the future.